Yuan Ting froze for a second. “…Shi Deng, what’s wrong?”
The energy emanating from his friend shifted so suddenly that for a moment, he felt like he was looking at a complete stranger.
People outside the tent heard no movement for a long time.
The supervisor silently beckoned. Behind him, metal-type ability users transformed their abilities into long blades, cutting open the tent from below—
Bang!
Three figures, along with a table, were swept out in a flash.
The entire tent was instantly torn apart. Everyone saw clearly the scene inside.
The youth in a long, off-white coat, profile indifferent, stood in opposition to Coach Chi. And the three people just sent flying—they were actually elite team members.
After Yuan Ting and the other two were caught, they quickly steadied themselves. When approaching again, their faces had long lost their earlier relaxed demeanor. They exclaimed in shock, “Shi Deng, you?!”
Shi Deng’s expression was shrouded by night. He paused, corners of his mouth pulling into a light smile. “Once discovered, there’s nothing left to hide.”
He looked up. In his eyes was mockery Cen Le and the others had never seen. Night wind carried the youth’s cold words into everyone’s ears.
“These two years, watching you all played around by me, treating me like a good brother, pouring out your hearts… Truly laughable. How stupid.”
The moment those words fell, aside from Cen Le and the other two still in a dazed state, surrounding ability users all showed indignant expressions.
Shi Deng didn’t dare look at Chi Yu’s eyes opposite him.
Wounds under the bandages still ached faintly. Because of blood loss, merely standing up made his head feel heavy, his body leaden.
This happened too suddenly. Moreover, he was still together with Chi Yu and them. The best way he could think of to clear them of suspicion was to draw a clear line.
Hopefully, when he’d struck earlier, he hadn’t injured them.
The supervisor said coldly, “Everyone here is from Tiangu. Yuan Guang’s leader graces us with his presence—making a move here isn’t very appropriate, is it?”
Already none of the daytime’s amiable attitude remained.
Yuan Ting landed on the ground, staring intently at the youth ahead. “Shi Deng, you’re joking, right? How could you be Yuan Guang’s leader…”
His family members all died at Yuan Guang’s hands. He’d sworn that one day he’d uproot Yuan Guang completely. This matter’s impact on Yuan Ting far exceeded ordinary people’s imagination.
Cen Le and Zhi Ze stood beside him.
As if everything was the same as previous resets—he and his friends forever stood on opposing sides.
Shi Deng’s fingers hidden in his sleeves moved. Suddenly, breathing felt somewhat difficult. Instinctively, he reached for his pocket to find the medicine bottle, then abruptly remembered—he’d left the bottle by the bedside.
Chi Yu surveyed the surroundings. “Everyone, don’t act rashly first. Previously, Shi Deng was an external support member of the elite team. He’s helped Tiangu quite a bit. Now there may be some misunderstanding. We can first find a place to talk things through properly.”
“What’s there to talk about? Eliminate him. Yuan Guang won’t be able to spare hands to deal with us for a short time. Right now is a critical moment. Mr. Chi, don’t hesitate.”
“This guy could hide under your noses for so long, deceive for so long. If he genuinely wanted to befriend you, why deceive…”
Voices grew clamorous. Shi Deng’s ears rang. When sounds reached his ears, it was like being separated by a thick membrane.
The only thing clear was his own heartbeat—one beat after another striking his eardrums, growing increasingly rapid. He uncomfortably clutched his chest, retreating half a step.
This was a sign before Shi Deng had an episode.
Cen Le’s pupils contracted. She shoved aside people pulling her back, rarely cursing.
“Yuan Ting, Zhi Ze, what are you two standing there for?!”
She quickly ran to the bedside, only to discover the pills originally scattered by the bed had been blown who knows where by the earlier gust. “Where’s the medicine?!”
Zhi Ze took a deep breath, standing in front of Shi Deng. “Wood.”
Grass from the ground poked out, quickly finding several pills and delivering them to his hand. In a few steps, he reached Shi Deng, gritting his teeth as he looked around.
“A cup of water, or is there a water-type ability user? Even if he’s Yuan Guang’s leader, the help all this time was real. There must be a misunderstanding. Can we talk things through slowly later?”
Though unclear why Yuan Guang’s leader suddenly became so weak or what medicine he needed to take, this was precisely a good opportunity to restrain Shi Deng. The supervisor raised his hand. “Take him away first.”
Black lightning suddenly drew a circle around them, blocking ability users about to advance. Yuan Ting gripped his long blade, expression ice-cold. “I’d like to see who dares.”
He tilted his head slightly, voice somewhat hoarse. “Shi Deng, I trust you. But I hope after this is over, I can get an explanation.”
The supervisor had a terrible headache, looking toward Chi Yu, the only one here with higher rank than him.
Just about to say something, he heard an incredulous shout from the crowd at a distance watching and filming videos:
“The ‘divine water’ we drank was mixed with Yuan Guang leader’s blood?! His blood can treat contamination?!”
No wall is impenetrable. When that “divine water” entered contaminated people’s mouths, many hands had handled it. Now at this critical juncture, the secret leaked out. Accompanying Shi Deng’s identity exposure, it instantly spread to everyone’s knowledge.
All uninformed people—ability users, contaminated people—their gazes toward Shi Deng changed.
—How could Yuan Guang’s leader be so kind-hearted to save ordinary people? That blood probably has hidden motives.
—That blood can treat contamination. Why haven’t ability users captured him yet? That way more people could be saved.
—Could there really be some misunderstanding? Looking at him, he clearly seems like a good kid.
…
Shi Deng covered his ears, already crouching on the ground, cold sweat pouring down.
He couldn’t see his companions’ protection. Couldn’t hear clearly the surrounding even more clamorous voices. The world in his perception was rapidly distorting.
Indescribable strangeness and panic invaded his senses.
Clinging to a thread of clarity, he snatched the pills from Zhi Ze’s hand, randomly stuffing them in his mouth.
Someone seemed to be anxiously prying his hand, feeding him water. Shi Deng only felt his whole body freezing cold. He knocked over the water, forcibly swallowing one pill down. The rest he coughed out entirely, mixed with blood threads.
“Get away—”
Powerful ability fluctuations rippled from him, sending the completely unprepared Yuan Ting and others, as well as kind-hearted ability users who’d come to give water, flying.
The youth stood up, staggering several steps. When he opened his eyes again, one eye had completely turned eerily red. Blue and red heterochromatic eyes exposed under everyone’s noses.
His gaze swept over his friends, companions.
Those weren’t the people he knew. All were… monsters wearing his friends’ shells.
Reason and madness interwove in his mind. Shi Deng stepped back, despair gradually surfacing in his eyes like fog in the dark night.
Cen Le tried to slow her voice to soothe him. “Shi Deng, don’t be afraid. Take it easy, okay? We’re here. It’s fine, it’s fine…”
Shi Deng gently shook his head. Raising his finger, he pointed lightly. A slender red crack flashed. His entire person disappeared from the spot.
Before everyone’s eyes, surrounded by advanced and special-grade ability users, he vanished.
Chi Yu’s breathing caught slightly. Almost instantly, he thought of Mr. Shi who’d also vanished in the blink of an eye like this. This thought flashed through his mind for an instant, quickly interrupted by other voices.
“He went that way. Chase him!”
Tracking techniques followed the direction Shi Deng left. The supervisor led ability users in pursuit. But after seeing clearly Shi Deng’s direction, he muttered internally.
That was clearly toward Feng City…
If Shi Deng wasn’t escaping, what was he doing going to Feng City?
Zhi Ze and the others fell several steps behind. After thinking, he leaned close and asked in a low voice, “Yuan Ting, do you still remember Shi Deng’s brother’s phone number from that time in the wasteland years ago?”
Yuan Ting: “I remember.”
After thinking briefly, he pulled out his phone and called. The other side still answered like last time.
The young man’s voice was cold and deep. “Hello?”
Yuan Ting said hurriedly, “Hello, I’m…”
He briefly explained the situation’s ins and outs.
Shi-ge: “I know.”
Yuan Ting: “Then you?”
Shi-ge walked to the bedroom window, fingertip touching the cool glass.
After a moment, looking at the circle of white fog around his fingertip, he said faintly, “No need to worry about it.”
Yuan Ting was surprised. Just about to say more, the other side hung up.
…
Shi-ge picked up the mirror on the table.
In the mirror, the youth appeared before Feng City’s east gate. The city gate was tightly locked. He seemed to hesitate, but ultimately extended his hand and pushed.
The gate opened easily.
A creaking sound.
Cold wind poured into the youth’s white coat, hem fluttering wildly.
He lifted his foot and walked into this city.
Shi-ge sighed lightly.
“Having chosen to enter, Shi Deng—will you still persist in your choice after walking this path to the end?”
The young man asked quietly.
Through the mirror, he asked himself, yet also not himself.
…
Dozens of thick chains appeared at Feng City’s horizon, surrounding Feng City entirely. All ability users rushing over were completely blocked, unable to enter.
And ability users within Feng City were also searched out by chains and thrown out entirely.
The entire Feng City—at this moment, it was like a cage bound by chains.
Hundreds of ability users looked down past the chains. That youth who’d entered the city was walking forward just like an ordinary person, walking very slowly.
Perhaps that pill had some effect. Shi Deng now existed in some peculiar junction, as if stepping on the boundary line between chaos and clarity, reality and illusion.
Everything around was distorted, pulled apart, becoming grotesque and bizarre in his eyes, as if in a realm of demons.
Why did he push open this city gate?
Why did he throw everyone else out?
He didn’t know…
He seemed to be searching for an answer.
An answer he’d never carefully asked himself through twelve lifetime resets.
Now in this city, there was only him, the contaminated, and some normal people.
Shi Deng walked forward. Above, more and more ability users were intercepted. But this city remained eerily quiet, even extinguishing a few more lamps, as if fearing his arrival.
Feng City was very large, with only two gates. For a normal person, walking from the east gate to the west gate required an entire day.
He walked alone for two hours, like a white ghost drifting through a ghost city.
Gradually, quite a few people in the city finally emerged in groups to watch. Most were some lightly and moderately contaminated people. All were contaminated people the patrol teams hadn’t discovered.
There were also some normal people.
They whispered, saying:
‘This person is Yuan Guang’s leader, a bad person.’
‘Ah, will he hurt us?’
‘Why say he’s a bad person? Never heard of him doing bad things.’
‘Foolish. How can Yuan Guang have any good people? But heard when he was outside, his blood mixed with water could apparently lift contamination…’
‘True or false?’
‘He’s a bad thing, but his blood is good.’
‘Then if we drink his blood, aren’t we doing a good deed?’
‘But what if he kills us? How can we drink it? So uncomfortable…’
Yes.
How can they drink it?
Blood.
No.
They were just doing their part to eliminate a bad person.
Many, many eyes hiding in darkness—righteous, greedy, hesitant, cold, calculating, fearful—all fixed on the seemingly defenseless young leader.
Finally, someone couldn’t help but threw a rock, hitting the youth’s temple.
The rock’s sharp edge stained with blood rolled to the side, quickly snatched by someone who treasured that bit of blood incomparably, wishing they could swallow the entire rock.
Demonic red blood wound down along his brow bone. The youth’s lashes trembled. Blood droplets fell like tears of blood, landing on the ground.
The first splash of vivid color stained his clothing.
His footsteps didn’t stop. He still maintained the same pace walking forward.
Seeing Shi Deng had no reaction, surrounding people’s courage gradually grew. With the first person came the second. Not daring to approach directly, they figured out methods to harm him.
Throughout dynasties and eras, humans never lacked talent in this area—devising various tortures.
They repeatedly threw sharp implements, creating wound after wound, greedily collecting blood on the weapons and dripping onto the ground.
This road—clean when he came, but now after just a few hours, it became a bloody path.
Shi Deng’s clothes were stained bit by bit until the original color could no longer be seen—dark red like blood.
When dawn’s light brightened from the east, the blood on him seemed already drained. The youth looked up at the sky. In his heterochromatic eyes, not a trace of light remained—still as a pool of undisturbed stagnant water.
His figure swayed.
Yuan Ting, blocked outside the chains, eyes bloodshot, tugged at those chains again and again, roaring, “Shi Deng! Come out! Damn it, I won’t work for Tiangu anymore. I’ll take you away! You’ll die, you know that? They’ll kill you. Shi Deng…”
Cen Le had been crying for who knows how long. Her fingers bled from the chains’ shock, yet she still tried to enter, to pull out the person she treated as a younger brother.
Zhi Ze watched the ugly behavior of those people below. The so-called protective beliefs he persisted in suddenly began to chill. Even knowing many among them were contaminated, weren’t there normal people too?
Shi Deng hadn’t made any moves to harm them.
…Yet why wasn’t there a single person stepping forward to stop it?
Was this what he’d fought exotic beasts countless times, risking his life to protect?
Through the chains, he could clearly see the hideous faces of those drinking Shi Deng’s blood. A wave of nausea suddenly surged in his heart.
He wasn’t the only one silent.
Most young ability users blocked outside the chains were extremely silent.
Perhaps they all knew humanity’s evil. Had all seen contaminated people’s greed and madness. They’d tell themselves it was all because of contamination.
But now?
Not a single normal person seeing this scene wouldn’t feel their heart turn cold.
Putting themselves in his place—if they were Shi Deng right now, they’d probably long since lost control, wanting to kill.
If Shi Deng killed these people, asking their hearts honestly, they seemingly couldn’t completely reject it. Could even understand.
In the city, someone scattered nails on the path Shi Deng would walk.
“What trash!”
An ability user cursed lowly.
…
Shi Deng kept walking forward.
Blood loss exchanged for more malicious thoughts.
At his heart, black fog locked by chains swelled. Thoughts always suppressed or always ignored now became whips repeatedly interrogating him:
Why save these people?
Who exactly was he saving?
For this world he loved?
That day returning from F City, snow filling the sky, he and companions stood atop the RV, discussing dreams and futures with the wilderness, shouting freely. In the distance—household lights.
At that time, he said he loved this world.
Did he really love it?
The scenery before Shi Deng’s eyes had already lost color. The path beneath his feet and surroundings were all varying shades of red. Only those ‘people’ were twisted, crooked black.
Like shadowy demons in hell.
At first, he was just a small, struggling-on-the-edge-of-death Yuan Guang member. Every day, racking his brain thinking about how to survive.
When very young, he learned to kill. Sinister calculations—lacking nothing. Just a weak, pitiful wretch without childhood innocence.
At that time, how come no one came to protect him?
Oh, there was someone—Uncle Xiao Fu.
But Uncle Xiao Fu had now also become incredibly aged because of him.
So could he also harbor resentment, could he also curse those righteous people—why didn’t they rescue him when he was small?
This world was truly, truly so unfair…
From when did he, Shi Deng, actually become this kind of ‘savior’ posture he deeply detested? What was he doing now? Cutting his own flesh to feed eagles? Repaying enmity with virtue?
How laughable.
He seemed unable to find where the meaning of his persistence lay anymore.
He also didn’t know—when this city was slaughtered to the last, what kind of scene would it be?
The blood flowing out would surely be far, far more than what was on him.
The youth’s face showed no expression. An eerie aura slowly enveloped him. Fluctuations on the time chains grew increasingly unstable. Continuously absorbed malicious thoughts filled his body.
He was only one step away from the abyss.
The sun rose to noon, then slowly set westward. The sky gradually darkened. Evening glow first arose. Since Shi Deng entered this city, half a night plus a full day had passed.
The oppressive aura on Shi Deng grew increasingly obvious. Coiling black fog almost took physical form. On the path he’d walked—the middle section had the most blood.
By now, not much blood could flow out. He relied entirely on his ability to support himself.
Ahead was the west gate. The gate stood wide open. Less than a hundred meters more, and he could exit.
Sharp glass shards were scattered on the final stretch of road. Under the setting sun, they reflected crystalline warm light, extraordinarily beautiful.
Shi Deng stopped walking for the first time.
A child stood before him.
The child’s expression was conflicted. Not a contaminated person. As if confirming Shi Deng wouldn’t harm others, the child hesitated a long time before approaching. “Um, hello…”
In the youth’s eyes, complete emptiness. He focused for a long time before the child’s shadow blurrily reflected in his eyes.
He lowered his head, opening his mouth. He could only produce a light breathy voice: “…What do you want?”
Realizing his own question was foolish, the youth asked, “You want blood, right? But I don’t have much left.”
The child froze, then rapidly shook his head.
Shi Deng paused, making a sound of acknowledgment. “Right. It’s almost evening now. Your family should be making dinner, right?”
“Where’s your knife?”
The child fearfully stepped back, swallowing. “I don’t have a knife…”
“No knife?” Shi Deng said calmly, yet undisguised malicious speculation surfaced in his eyes. “Without a knife, how will you cut my flesh? No more blood means it’s time to cut my flesh, right?”
“Oh, and bones. Can make soup to nourish bodies.”
The child was so frightened he burst into tears with a wail, viciously throwing something at him before turning and running away.
That thing landed lightly on the ground, bounced once, and rolled ahead.
Shi Deng covered his face. After a long time, he suddenly laughed lowly.
At first, no sound. Then gradually louder. Everyone’s hearts clenched.
This laughter abruptly stopped at a certain moment.
Without warning, Shi Deng fell forward, crashing onto the spread-out broken glass ahead.
Outside the chains in the sky, someone called his name.
“Shi Deng—!!”
The youth didn’t know if he heard or not. Pillowing on his own arm, watching blood seep out again beneath the glass, he was so tired. He didn’t want to move anymore.
Shattered glass reflected evening glow’s light. Spread over blood, it seemed to become a particularly magnificent, demonic beauty.
His blurred vision fell on what the child had thrown at him.
Shi Deng looked for a while, making out that small ball—somewhere on it was drawn a little pig head. What exactly it was, he didn’t know. A bit of curiosity arose. He extended his hand, picking it up to look.
Outside the chains.
From the very beginning, Chi Yu’s heart felt stuffed with cotton—unbearably uncomfortable. He tried every method to break through the blockade but still couldn’t enter.
This child who didn’t look very old—his ability was actually formidable to this degree.
Cen Le, who’d been watching Shi Deng constantly, said hoarsely, “Shi Deng moved…”
From when he’d fallen to the ground earlier, they hadn’t even dared breathe heavily. Almost everyone thought ‘is Shi Deng going to die?’
Yet the ability chains blocking them showed no signs of dissipating whatsoever.
The youth who’d fallen on the ground earlier moved again. He seemed to try standing up but didn’t succeed.
Shi Deng said something lowly, then began crawling forward bit by bit.
Very slowly.
He truly had no strength left.
Not a bit of strength.
Outside, intercepted ability users—who knows how many—all silently watched his incredibly slow movements. They didn’t know why Shi Deng locked up this city, letting himself experience this day and a half that could be called self-torture.
But undeniably, they… hoped he could walk out of this city.
The moment the youth crawled out the city gate was when the evening glow was most magnificent.
In the distance, against the light, appeared a refined figure. Seemingly far away, in the blink of an eye close. Shi-ge stopped before the youth. His shadow projected by the setting sun fell upon his past self.
The youth showed no movement. His coat long since stained by blood and filth. Breathing also very weak. Only his lips moved. “Shi-ge?”
He always seemed able to sense Shi-ge’s presence immediately—no matter where, even having just crawled out from a ‘demon realm.’
The young man half-crouched down. His gaze swept across the youth’s wounds one by one. A heavy darkness flashed through his eyes. Then he responded lowly, “Mm.”
He extended his hand. “Shi Deng, will you come with me?”
Give up?
The youth raised his head. After a moment, he extended his hand.
One full of scars, one with distinct knuckles.
Then they gently passed by each other.
Shi-ge slightly froze.
The youth vaguely grasped the illusory evening sun’s warm light, smiling. “Shi-ge, today’s sunset is so beautiful.”
His future was within reach. He didn’t grasp it.
***
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152